Search form

Commentary: Protest against Monsanto recruits participants

How evil is Monsanto? According to professional activists, new-age hippies and easily swayed consumers, Monsanto employees are sons and daughters of the devil that work together to kill people and destroy the planet.

I just cannot see people enchanted with destroying Monsanto as anything other than out of touch with reality. First of all, Monsanto is by no means the only company working to feed the world and increase farmer income with genetically modified traits; there are many companies today. Second, refusing to believe in science and believing scientists are liars is ridiculous.

But nothing seems to sway protesters from targeting Monsanto. The latest batch of protests is being organized to be held May 25 around the nation under the theme of “March Against Monsanto.” The organizers of the Kansas City, Mo., version of the protest have been handing out flyers and using social media to the fullest extent to organize participants.

The very first line of the long-version mission statement of “why we march” condemns genetically-modified foods with completely false claims or complete lies. “Research studies have shown that Monsanto’s genetically-modified foods can lead to serious health conditions such as the development of cancer tumors, infertility and birth defects.” Other than by unscrupulous quasi-scientists, GMOs have never been proven to cause any health conditions.

And enticing every organic farmer to join the protestors seems to be a goal. “Organic and small farmers suffer losses while Monsanto continues to forge its monopoly over the world’s food supply,” the protestors’ “mission statement” claims. Turning farmer against farmer really confuses the general public.

Those who are truly concerned about the environment for honeybee health have not pulled Monsanto into the controversy about low numbers of bee reproduction and colony collapse, but the uninformed protesters say Monsanto is to blame in their mission statement.

The falsely dubbed federal “Monsanto Protection Act” legislation has provided inspiration for activists to claim the company is the “benefactor of corporate subsidies and political favoritism” of corrupt government officials.

The short form flyer hand-out explains “why we march” as follows:

To protect our food supply.

Support local farmers.

Spread awareness about harmful effects of genetically modified food.

Promote organic solutions.

Expose the cronyism—big business and government.

Bring accountability to those responsible for the corruption.

The mission statement ends, “We will not stand for cronyism. We will not stand for poison.”

If you don’t see a reason for concern about being associated with the March Against Monsanto, then you probably are a person believing in covert operations and hidden agendas by everyone associated with agricultural science.